This invention relates to excavator buckets, more specifically, to an excavator bucket including a retractable scarifier useful in breaking-up and leveling ground when attached to a skid steer loader or the like.
All-wheel drive skid-steer loaders have gained in popularity due to their compact size and maneuverability. The conventional skid-steer loaders are configured so that a variety of separate attachments can be coupled thereto such as an excavator bucket, a scarifier, a dozer blade, etc.
Oftentimes when using a skid-steer loader with a bucket attachment, it is necessary to break-up hard ground. Thus, an operator is required to stop the operation of the loader and physically remove the bucket to put on a scarifier having teeth to breakup compacted or hard ground. Many operators find this to be a great loss in work time and often choose to just break-up the ground with the bucket, thus creating additional costs and loss of time to repair/replace the misused equipment.
There are conventional buckets having teeth that protrude from the lower front edge of the bucket. These buckets work well when digging and ground-breaking are needed but, because the teeth are permanently fixed to the front edge of the bucket, the teeth hinder the process of smoothing and packing soil because the points of the teeth leave lines in the ground during back-dragging of the bucket.
Accordingly, there is a need to provide a bucket including a retractable scarifier so that the bucket can be used without obstruction from the scarifier when the scarifier is not required, and so that the scarifier can be employed when needed to break-up hard ground.
An object of the invention is to fulfill the need referred to above. In accordance with the principles of the present invention, this objective is obtained by providing a combined bucket and scarifier device including a bucket having a bottom wall, a rear wall, and two side walls coupled to the bottom wall and the rear wall to define an interior space. The bucket has an open front end and a generally smooth lower front edge. The bottom wall includes a plurality of openings therethrough. A scarifier is operatively associated with the bucket. The scarifier has a plurality of teeth constructed and arranged to be movable with respect to the bucket between an inoperative position within the interior space so as not to obstruct the smooth lower front edge and bottom wall of the bucket, to an operative position with portions of the teeth extending through the openings in the bottom wall of the bucket. An actuating structure is mounted with respect to the bucket to move the teeth between the inoperative and operative positions thereof.
Other objects, features and characteristics of the present invention, as well as the methods of operation and the functions of the related elements of the structure, the combination of parts and economics of manufacture will become more apparent upon consideration of the following detailed description and appended claims with reference to the accompanying drawings, all of which form a part of this specification.